Russia has blocked social media platform Instagram this week, following Meta's decision to "temporarily" ease restrictions on violence and hate speech against Russians and Russian soldiers, with several Russian sports stars making farewell statements to fans on Instagram.
As one of the major sports powers, the biggest impact of the IG ban order is actually the MMA organization UFC.
Under the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Meta, the parent company of the three major social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, has relaxed the content of Russian and Ukrainian-related speech, and violent content hostile to Russia will not be removed.
Russia listed Meta as an "extremist organization" and completely blocked Instagram on Monday (14th), with an estimated 80 million local users affected.
Russia, as one of the major sports countries, has a lot of influence on Instagram, according to foreign media statistics, the biggest impact of the blockade is the MMA group UFC. Among the Russian players, the one with the most followers on Instagram is the 29-29-29 victory, retired UFC legendary "Kitty Hawk" Habib Nurmagmedov, with 33.4 million followers.
Ranked No. 2 is retired rhythmic gymnastics world champion Laysan Utyasheva, who has 5 million followers and is currently a TV presenter.
In third place, Shura Baowa, a former world number one retired tennis player who is popular in the world sports world, unexpectedly only has 4.2 million followers on Instgram.
No. 4 is also a boxer, islam Makhachev, currently in the top five of the UFC lightweight division. He is a trainer trained by "Kitty" Habib Nurmagmedov and is seen as his successor. Ranked 5th to 8th, also MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) players, including Zubala Tuhugov, Kanzat Chimayev and Zabit Magomoshelpav.
Gorgeous Gorgeous Girl, a fancy skating girl who was involved in the anti-drug storm at the Beijing Winter Olympics, ranked 16th with 1.2 million followers.
Among the top 20 athletes with the most attention in Russia, 10 are MMA players and 1 is an Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling.
From this, we can see the enthusiasm of Russians for the fighting movement.